Moving Day Blues

If there's anything I hate more than moving from an old location to a new location (home, office, etc.), I can't think of it. So you can imagine what fun I've had over the last two weeks as my company, Virginia Homes has moved to a new office in Downtown Columbus. And while I like the new digs (get my own office and everything, woo-hoo!), I hate all the bother of moving: packing, unpacking, cleaning, customizing a space, etc.

But the worst of it has been getting our computer system up and running. While it's nice to have new computers (very, very nice in fact), I still can't believe all of the little things one does to a system, and that I now have to redo. Why can't I have some kind of tech genie how wiggles his/her nose and boom, there it is? Even worse, I had to buy a new PDA last week, and boy did I have to jump through hoops to get that back to normal. I mean, I wish you could just do some kind of electronic Vulcan Mind Meld (probably can, just don't know how yet!). Guess it's back to hacking school for me!

Is Film Too Easy?

As many who know me know, I'm becoming a DVD junkie. This is not necessarily because the picture quality is better (though I love that most are in widescreen format) but rather because of the numerous director's commentaries running through the movies. I have learned more through listening to directors talk about their craft then I could have imagined, and it's much cheaper than film school!

However, I am beginning to wonder if all the new CGI/digital technologies might drastically alter the creative process of filmaking. For example, last night we watched "Shanghai Knights" (yes, I now this is not an Oscar winner, but we were in the mood for something light). Throughout the director's commentary, he'd explain how this building or that building was real while the rest would be CGI, extrapolated from plans, still photographs, and virtual models. And it seemed that it made everything very easy - all he'd have to do is say, oh, "put Jackie Chan on top of Big Ben" and boom, some CGI firm had it ready for him (yes, I'm simplifying the CGI tech's skill, but stay with me). Contrast this with a recent E! documentary on the making of "Jaws," one of my favorite films. Now when making Jaws, the mechanical shark kept breaking down. This kept forcing Spielberg and his crew to rearrange filming schedules and rethink their storytelling. One of the great things that arose from the faulty fish is underwater-fish-point-of-view shots, accompanied by the great Jon Williams bass line. Now I can't imagine "Jaws" without these shots - they really up the suspense and create anticipation for when you actually see the title character in the last third of the movie. Now today, I can imagine them saying, "Well, let's just add the fish later with CGI" and moved on, never being forced to rethink their assumptions and come up with alternatives.

Now, I love having obstacles when i'm crating - they often force me to find new, creative solutions, my own version of the shark POV shots. Such "resistance" helps take me out of my ego-driven first ideas and expose me to new possibilities. Yet, this resistance seems to be ebbing out of film as the computer makes more and more effects possible. My worry is that this will limit the creativity of the filmmaker accordingly

They Call It Default for a Reason

An article of interest appeared the last few days. It announced that another new security flaw was found in Microsoft's various operating systems; according to reports this was one of the "worst" yet, allowing hackers who exploit it to have free reign on servers or desktops effected. Not much news there, if not for an announcement in the end of the article: Microsoft won a $90 Million Dollar contract to provide desktop and server software to the Department of Homeland Security. What?!? I mean, don't they keep up with the monthly (or sometimes weekly) patches to plug security holes in Microsoft products? For more input and links, check out the responses of two of my favorite bloggers, Eric Meyer and Jeffrey Zeldman.

Now normally I might take this opportunity to gloat over that fact that I'm currently typing on a Mac, but this got me thinking other directions. Why is it that common wisdom / the general public always find a choice and stick with it when there may be many more exciting alternatives? I can't think it's just being lazy - i'm too much of an optimist for that. For example, when I was elementary-school age the Desktop Computer was just making it's big breakthrough. Now there were many good choices out there - Commodores, Apples (pre-Mac), etc. But my father (whom I love, don't get me wrong) held out to by a PC until IBM rolled out their first desktop - codenamed "The Peanut." Now other than being back up by a nice ad campaign (featuring a Charlie Chaplin look-alike, classic), the computer was not much to look at: not much software, not much power, not much room for expansion. Certainly history shows that there were better alternatives out there, but in that day and time Big Blue was the big player; they were computing's 100-pound gorilla and seemed to make choices accordingly. I bring up this memory because twenty years or so later, Microsoft is the big monkey on the block. And when I see choices made like the one by Homeland Security, I just remember to that IBM Peanut and wondered what my dad was thinking.

More Internet History Gone

A sad announcement for computer history - AOL is officially axed Netscape, the first commercial browser and descendent of the first graphical browser, Mosaic. Not only did the company change the way we interact with information, but also helped spawn the Tech Boom of the 90's, the current Mozilla project, and a ill-fated investigation of an un-named software company. The word is that about half of the Netscape staff was let go, and that others are being moved about AOL. The only good news I have is that a) standards guru Eric Meyer still is employed, and b) those dedicated to Mozilla development will fall under a new non-profit entity, The Mozilla Foundation.

So within a month of time, Netscape is closed and Microsoft announces that it will neither continue developing a browser for the Macintosh nor offer future stand-alone browsers for Windows. Now to be totally honest, I have long ceased using either product for some time; my current recommendations run toward Mozilla Firebird (for Windows) and Safari (for the Macintosh). But it seems amazing to me that such old-school software is collapsing in such a short period of time - I guess they were telling the truth when they said you can't make money from browsers! How this will change the future of the web is anyone's guess, but one thing is for sure: the future of browser development is in the hands of the next generation!

Unplugged and Coping

Well, it's been an odd couple of days in the Stevens' household. Storms have been rolling through the Central Ohio area for the past five days, engendering much chaos. So far we've lost power twice (once for 20 hours), lost our phone line (still not fixed), and lost our favorite shade tree in the backyard. But the interesting thing was how I discovered all these quirky little habits centered around the use of electricity. Like, flipping on the light switch in a darkened room. Now I know that the power is off, that no light switch will work, but inevitably I'd go into a room and hit the light switch before I could stop myself. Nearly every other impulse (have to run the dishwasher, should turn on the TV, etc.) I was able to curb, but the light switch got me every time. It's like it was a reaction wired (no pun intended) straight into the limbic system. The other thing I noticed was how much noise all that eletrical equipment really makes. When the power finally came on (at midnight), the racket itself woke me up. And yet we ignore it 99 percent of the time! Amazing...

The Emergent Matrix

Lately I've been perusing various books which analyze, criticize, or prostelitize The Matrix; this is my little way to both prepare for the release of the last movie & upcoming movie as well as still keep a finger in a philosophical pot (hard to do now that I'm years removed from graduate school). These books tend to be middling-okay to good, and right now I'm into a winner: Taking the Red Pill. Now one of the arguements against our "being" in the Matrix is the sheer amount of effort, information, and energy our digital oppressors would have to expend to create the Matrix; one author in the book Exploring the Matrix estimated that it would take the total energy output of a large star to encode a small city's worth of information. This got me thinking, however. All these arguements depend on the fact that The Matrix would have to simulate the world to a great degree of resolution, in order to fool the mind. But what if the mind was an unconcious conspirator in it's own enslavement?

Here's my thinking - there's all these folks hooked up to the Matrix power plant, right? And the machines are feeding a false illusionary world to this mass, right? So what if the machines only have to feed a small amount of info? What if the human minds themselves (out of a need to create order, sanity, what have you) create a consensual illusion based on limited clues fed by the machines? I mean, humans today in sensory deprivation tanks can begin to hallucinate vivid realities; the mind just gets bored and starts to make stuff up. And what are our nightly dreams but vivid illusions created solely by the mind? So the trick would be not to create the illusion world in great detail, but to simply give enough clues to convince the mind to create it for you. The other trick would be to get all the millions of separate minds to agree on the illusion somehow, and then just let the masses dream their dream, creating a group hallucination guided by your sparse inputs and controls.

Now since I'm not a philosopher, psychologist, or computer scientist, I'm sure there are many arguements against this idea of a consensual dream which emerges from the inactive minds of the imprisioned. Indeed, one problem would be that the machines must be molding the Matrix to follow the same rules as the "real" world - otherwise, why wouldn't everyone dream that they could fly like Neo (I know I've taken flight in a few pleasurable dreams)? And if there wasn't a strong correspondence between the illusion and the real, how would Neo know how to react and move when he awakens from his dream in his personal slime-pod? But still, I think the secret to building a Matrix (which I'm not suggesting, by the way) would be to create just enough and let the slaves fill in the mundane details (like the taste of food, the touch of fabric, the sky color, etc.) rather than dedicated piles of resources to controlling every aspect of the illusion. I mean, don't the machines have anything better to do?

Random Wanderings

Well, I'm not sure I have anything enlightening to say (when do I ever), but with the July 4th Holiday approaching I thought I'd better say something before I go coma for the weekend. So...

• Congrats to Apple - Bravo to Apple Computers for finally updating their CPU and computer hardware, creating what looks to be a screamer of a machine. Unfortunately, I can't justify buying one, so I'll have to just watch jealously. Apple claims that this will be the fastest desktop machine on the market, but since they don't hit the shelves until August, I'm reserving opinion. Also, props to them for creating the iSight (clever name, as usual), what looks to be a fine web cam/microphone designed specifically for the Mac. Sigh, Christmas is how long from now?
• Bravo to Free Speech - This just in today - a recent court ruling defines speech on the Internet (such as blogs, like this one) as protected under free speech. Basically, that means I probably won't get sued if I go on a tirade. Let's hope that court ruling holds; I love tirade-ing!
• Hack-A-Thon This Weekend - Okay, so if you're favorite web sites freak out this weekend, don't panic. Various news sources are reporting that a loosely-organized hacking contest will commence on July 6th, potentially affecting many sites and the general speed of the Internet. Interestingly, they give points based on how hard it is to break into the server: 1 pt. for a Windows server, 2.5 pts. for a Linux server, and 5 pts. for a Mac server (again, yeah Apple). And I swear, it wasn't me who did it!

That's it, I'm outta here for Hot Dogs and Fireworks - Jeff